Case study involves infant treated shortly after birth; skin lesions appeared after suspension of propranolol
MONDAY, March 16, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Propranolol seems to be prophylactic against infantile hemangiomas, according to a case report published online March 16 in Pediatrics.
Rocío Porcel Chacón, M.D., from the Costa del Sol Hospital in Marbella, Spain, and colleagues presented the case of a male infant with heart disease who started treatment with propranolol shortly after birth. Treatment was suspended after seven months when the patient had suffered various respiratory exacerbations.
The researchers found that one week after treatment suspension, multiple skin lesions (multifocal infantile hemangiomas) began to appear, with no extracutaneous involvement. The skin lesions improved rapidly, and some disappeared completely, after resumption of treatment with propranolol, at lower doses than before. At age 16 months, treatment was definitively withdrawn, with slight lesion recurrence.
“The case described is of multifocal infantile hemangiomas without extracutaneous involvement appearing beyond the neonatal period after treatment with propranolol beginning in the first days of life,” the authors write. “The details of the case support the hypothesis that this drug is not only therapeutic but also plays a prophylactic role against infantile hemangiomas.”
Copyright © 2015 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
